Between the Cracks
The best unclassifiable music of 1997, from South American rhythms to Celtic fiddles to soulful Hammond organ fills. [12-29-97]Michael McCall

Top-Heavy
In 1997, country music looked a lot better from the bottom than it did from the top. [12-29-97]Michael McCall

Nothing New
Caught in an endless cycle, 1997's rock 'n' roll kept pacing the same circles without any interesting movement forward. [12-22-97]Michael McCall

A Semi-Charmed Year
Lacking a galvanizing artist, album, or trend, 1997 was a lost year for rock music. [12-22-97]Noel Murray

Some Sounds, Some Buttons
With a few exceptions, many of '97's best records were made by folks who favored words and guitars over microchips. [12-22-97]Bill Friskics-Warren

Living Blues
Controversies over image and content have plagued jazz, blues, and urban music throughout the '90s, and this year was no exception. [12-22-97]Ron Wynn

think it's time we took a deeper look at all of the "Best
of 1997" stories at once. Read the articles listed below
for a renewed understanding of the human condition.

Each reviewer's tastes exist in his or her own private, organic
world, a world that's entirely subjective yet perceived, from
within, as objective and true. I look upon this week's music summaries,
then, as a philosophical experience for which you can leave your
Bertrand Russell on the end table and let the pixels flashing
by at a thousand pulses a second on your computer monitor expand
your mind not unlike Violet Beauregaard after a grand old snozberry
feast.

In addition, you can cast your world-weary peepers into the future
by reading this list of peevish predictions for the new year in
music, as well as letting this Big Noises article inform you of
the albums and musical trends to come. Count on your consciousness
being altered forever, forging new neural pathways in the unexplored
rainforests of the fertile continents that make up your rich
mental geography. Yeah.

Perspective? You want perspective? Read these articles about
octogenarian John Lee Hooker or Ray Charles or Rahsaan Roland
Kirk, and enhance your understanding of the world far better than
an evening of those idiots Plato, Spinoza and Kant ever could.
You might want to imbibe some smart drugs first, but I personally
recommend eating a lot of fish and then chanting nam myoho
rhenge kyo for six hours straight. Works better.

Seriously, I hope you'll enjoy these articles and give
them more than a passing glance. Like Nietzsche said, read slow
and you'll catch more. Or was that Dylan?

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Click here to find out, or just ignore them.

The Sound of Teardrops
How deep is John Lee Hooker's blues? "You can't go no deeper than me and my guitar," he tells Ted Drozdowski. [4]Ted Drozdowski

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